Reinspection of Youth Offending work in Bournemouth and Poole

The latest reinspection report of Youth Offending work in England and Wales was published today.

Julie Fox, Assistant Chief Inspector, said:

‘Our Core Case Reinspection of youth offending work in Bournemouth and Poole was undertaken as part of our Inspection of Youth Offending programme. This reinspection focuses exclusively on the work undertaken by Youth Offending Teams with children and young people who have already committed an offence.

‘Its purpose is to assess if the work is of a sufficiently high standard to protect both the public from any harm resulting from the child or young person’s offending behaviour and the child or young person themselves, whether from their own behaviour or any other source.

‘The reinspection is based on a rigorous examination of a representative sample of cases supervised by the Youth Offending Team/Service. Our findings are shown in the table below, outlined against those for Wales and the regions of England inspected so far.

‘Overall, we consider this an impressive set of findings. The original Core Case Inspection took place in 2010 and revealed a disappointing set of results. At the time of the first reinspection, carried out in February 2011, there was still no permanent management team in place and the YOS Manager had only been in post for seven months. Staff and managers were working hard to improve the service and we detected some positive changes but the findings were again disappointing.

‘Significant developments have taken place in the last 12 months. The YOS has moved to more suitable premises and a management team is now in place. The new Chair of the Management Board has supported the team in these, and other, changes. Clearly, all involved have worked hard to improve the service and the inspection findings speak for themselves. Discussion with case managers confirmed that there is now a culture of continuous development and they were eager to contribute to further improvement. To that end, we have made some recommendations but we are confident that the current improvement plan is focused in the right areas.’

Scores from the English regions that have been inspected to date Scores for Bournemouth & Poole
Lowest Highest Average
‘Safeguarding’  work (action to protect the young person) 36% 91% 68% 75%
‘Risk of Harm to others’ work (action to protect the public) 36% 86% 62% 71%
‘Likelihood of Reoffending’ work (individual less likely to reoffend ) 43% 88% 71% 75%

Notes to editors:

  1. View the report (PDF, 583 kB).
  2. This Inspection of Youth Offending (IYO) programme started in April 2009. Youth Offending work in all 158 areas of England & Wales will be inspected over the course of a three-year cycle.
  3. Julie Fox can be contacted on julie.fox@hmiprobation.gsi.gov.uk (E-mail address) and 07973 264412.